THE 


PRODUCT  AND 

OF 

THE  OIL  REGIONS 

OF 

Pennsylvania  and  New  York. 


BY 

CHARLES  A.  ASHBURNER,  M.S., 

Geologist  in  Charge  Pennsylvania  Survey, 

PHILADELPHIA. 


Read  before  the  American  Institute  of  Mining  Engineers, 
at  the  Halifax  Meeting, 
September,  1885. 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


With  the  Compliments  of 

CHAS.  A.  ASHBURNER, 

GEOLOGIST  IN  CHARGE. 

Please  acknowledge  receipt 

to  907  Walnut  St.,  Philadelphia. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/productexhaustioOOashb 


THE  PRODUCT  AND  EXHAUSTION  OF  THE  OIL-REGIONS 
OF  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  NEW  YORK. 


The  petroleum  industry  of  western  Pennsylvania  and  south- 
western New  York  has  been  one  of  phenomenal  development. 
Greater  and  more  sudden  fluctuations  have  occurred  in  the  price*  of 
crude  oil,  and  in  all  the  collateral  interests,  dependent  upon  its  pro- 
duction than  in  the  case  of  any  other  mineral  product  which  has  been 
extensively  exploited  in  the  United  States.  This  was  more  particu- 
larly so  from  the  commencement  of  drilling  for  oil  in  1859  down  to 
the  end  of  1877.  The  experience  gained  during  these  early  years 
has  enabled  the  oil  men  to  operate  more  intelligently  since ;  the 
business  is  not  now  attended  with  the  hazardous  risks  with  which  it 
is  generally  credited. 

The  most  important  questions  connected  with  the  oil  industry  are 
those  of  (a)  the  oil-supply,  and  (6)  the  possible  ultimate  exhaustion 
of  the  field.  Since  1876  my  attention  has  been  directed  to  the  study 
of  the  statistics  of  the  product  of  the  oil  regions.  In  January,  1880, 
in  order  to  show  some  interesting  points  connected  with  these  ques- 
tions, I  prepared  a  graphic  chart  which  was  used  to  illustrate  a 
lecture  on  petroleum  delivered  before  the  Franklin  Institute.  This 
chart  was  afterwards  reconstructed  in  two  distinct  forms  for  publica- 
tion in  the  census  report  on  Petroleum  and  its  Products.  These 
latter  I  have  redrawn  in  a  condensed  form,  and  have  extended  them 
to  include  the  statistics  up  to  1885,  for  publication  in  the  Transac- 
tions of  the  Institute,  in  conjunction  with  a  map  of  the  oil-regions 

*  The  average  price  of  crude  oil  for  January,  1863,  was  ten  cents  a  barrel.  This 
was  the  lowest  monthly  average  ever  attained ;  the  highest  monthly  average  was 
$12,122  per  barrel  for  July,  18G4.  The  lowest  yearly  average  was  78|  cents  for 
1882,  and  the  highest  $9,872  ft>r  1864.  The  average  price  of  the  entire  product  to 
January,  1885  (260,990,435  barrels),  has  been  $1.63£.  A  barrel  of  petroleum  is 
always  considered  to  contain  forty-two  gallons. 

1 


fioici/o 


THE  oil-ui:<;ions  of  Pennsylvania  and  new  yoke. 


prepared  by  Mr.  John  F.  Carl!  and  myself.  It  is  hoped  that  thesp 
illustrations  will  be  found  interesting  to  the  members  of  the  Institute, 
and  of  practical  utility  to  oil-men  without  any  extended  disenssion, 
since  it  is  my  desire  to  make  only  such  brief  references  to  them  and 
give  such  additional  detailed  facts  as  may  serve  to  make  the  promi- 
nent features  understood. 

For  convenience  of  reference,  during  the  past  few  years,  the 
individual  oil-pools  of  the  region  have  been  grouped  under  six 
prominent  districts,  as  follows: 

1.  Allegany  district  includes  the  Richburg  and  several  small 
outlying  pools  in  Allegany  County,  N.  Y.  The  area  which  has 
proved  productive  oil-territory  is  31  square  miles,*  of  which  the 
Richburg  field  embraces  an  area  of  28  square  miles. 

The  Allegany  district  up  to  January,  1885,  produced  15,000,000 
barrels,  an  average  of  about  419,000  barrels  per  square  mile. 

2.  Bradford  district  embraces  the  oil-pools  in  central  and  north- 
ern McKean  County,  Pa.,  and  southern  Cattaraugus  County,  N.  Y. 
The  area  of  productive  territory  in  this  district  is  133  square  miles, 
121  square  miles  of  which  is  included  within  the  Bradford  field 
proper.  The  sand  from  which  the  oil  in  the  Allegany  and  Bradford 
districts  is  obtained -consists  of  a  gray,  black,  dark-brown  or  choco- 
late-brown colored  sand  of  about  the  coarseness  of  the  ordinary 
beach-sand  of  the  New  Jersey  coast. 

The  interval  between  the  top  of  the  oil-sand  and  the  bottom  of  the 
Olean  conglomerate  (the  bottom  member  of  the  Pottsville  conglom- 
erate,  Xo.  XII.,  or  Millstone  grit),  which  is  one  of  the  most  per- 
sistent and  best  recognized  geological  horizons  in  western  Pennsyl- 
vania, is,  at  Bradford,  1775  feet. 

The  oil  obtained  is  dark  amber-green  and  occasionally,  black.  Its 
gravity  is  generally  slightly  greater  than  that  of  the  oil  mostly 
obtained  throughout  the  Venango  and  Butler  districts,  which  is 
generally  stated  at  about  48  degrees. 

*  The  territories  of  which  the  areas  are  given  here  were  defined  by  arbitrary  lines, 
drawn  to  include  all  the  surface  where  producing  wells  have  been  obtained  or  which 
was  known,  from  actual  drilling  up  to  .January,  1885,  to  be  underlaid  with  oil.  All 
the  individual  pools  are  shown  on  the  accompanying  map;  the  areas  of  some  of 
them  have  been  slightly  exaggerated  in  order  that  they  might  be  observed  on  a 
scale  of  twenty-five  miles  to  one  inch.  A  map  on  a  scale  of  six  miles  to  one  inch, 
showing,  with  approximate  exactness  the  areas  of  the  pools,  will  appear  in  the 
annual  report  for  1885  of  the  Second  Geological  Survey  of  Pennsylvania.  The  total 
area  of  all  the  productive  oil-territory  in  Pennsylvania  prior  to  1885  was  369  square 
miles. 


THE  OIE-REGIONS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  NEW  YORK.  3 


4        THE  OIL-REGIONS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA   AND  NEW  YORK. 


The  Bradford  district  up  to  January,  1885,  produced  109,000,000 
barrels,  an  average  of  about  820,000  barrels  per  square  mile. 

3.  The  Warren  district  comprises  the  oil-pools  in  eastern  Warren 
County  and  north-eastern  Forest  County,  Pa.  The  total  area  of  the 
productive  territory  in  this  district  is  35  square  miles.  The  two 
largest  pools  are  the  Clarendon,  in  Warren  County,  which  covers 
an  area  of  about  14  square  miles,  and  the  Cooper  and  Sheffield, 
partly  in  Warren  and  partly  in  Forest,  covering  an  area  of  9  square 
miles. 

The  oil  in  this  district  comes  from  sands  of  varying  geological 
horizons,  having  somewhat  the  general  appearance  of  the  Bradford 
and  Allegany  sand,  but  frequently  coarser-grained  and  sometimes 
containing  small  pebbles,  which  latter  I  have  never  known  to  have 
been  found  in  the  sands  of  the  other  two  districts.  According  to 
Mr.  Oarll,  the  depths  of  the  Warren  district  oil-sands  below  the 
Olean  conglomerate  are  as  follows:  North  Warren  sand,  1100  feet; 
Warren  third  sand,  1300  feet;  Clarendon  third  sand,  1450 
feet;  Cherry  Grove  third  sand,  1625  feet;  and  Cooper  (Forest 
County  third  sand,  1850  feet.  The  Cooper  sand  is  supposed  to 
occupy  the  same  geological  horizon  as  the  Bradford  and  Allegany 
sand.  The  Allegany,  Bradford,  and  Warren  district  sands  I  believe 
to  be  of  Chemung' (Devonian)  age.  The  oils  from  the  different 
Warren  pools  vary  greatly  in  color  and  gravity ;  but  they  are  gen- 
erally spoken  of  as  amber  oils.  The  Warren  district,  up  to  January, 
1885,  produced  12,000,000  barrels,  an  average  of  about  343,000 
barrels  per  square  mile. 

4.  The  Venango  district,  which  was  the  scene  of  all  the  earlier 
oil  developments,  includes  40  distinct  and  well-recognized  oil-pools, 
the  total  area  of  which  is  65  square  miles,  the  largest  pool  being 
that  lying  between  Oil  City  on  the  south  and  Pleasantville  on  the 
north,  covering  an  area  of  28  square  miles.  No  one  of  the  other  pools 
exceeds  an  area  of  5  square  miles,  which  is  about  the  productive 
territory  covered  by  the  Tidioute  and  Triumph  pool  in  southwestern 
Warren  County,  and  the  Franklin  pool  in  western  Venango  County. 
The  oil  of  this  district  is  obtained  from  three  principal  sand-beds, 
known  respectively  as  the  first,  second,  and  third  oil-sands,  con- 
tained within  an  interval  of  350  feet.  The  first  sand,  which  is  the 
uppermost  one  of  the  three,  lies  about  450  feet  below  the  base  of  the 
Olean  conglomerate.  The  Venango  sands  I  believe  to  belong  to 
the  Catskill  (Devonian)  formation  No.  IX.  These  oil-sands  were 
the  first  discovered  in  Pennsylvania  ;  and  drillers  from  this  field,  op- 


THE  OIL-REGIONS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  NEW  YORK.  5 


6        THE  OIL-REGIONS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  NEW  YORK. 


crating  in  other  districts,  have  designated  the  sands  which  were  found 
in  the  new  districts  as  the  first,  second,  and  third  sands,  irrespective 
of  their  relative  geological  position.  The  Venango  sands  generally 
consist  of  a  white,  gray  or  yellow  pebble-rock.  The  pebbles  are 
water-worn,  are  sometimes  as  large  as  hazelnuts,  and  are  loosely 
cemented  together,  and  generally  bedded  in  fine  sand.  The  sand  in 
this  district  has  not  as  regular  or  as  homogeneous  a  character,  over 
extended  areas,  as  in  the  Bradford  and  Allegany  fields,  where  the 
sands  are  phenomenal  in  this  respect;  consequently,  the  risk  of 
obtaining  dry  holes  and  wells  of  variable  production  in  the  Venango 
district  has  always  been  greater  than  in  the  Bradford  and  Allegany. 
The  oils  are  generally  green,  frequently  black,  and  in  some  instances 
amber.  The  gravity  varies  from  30  to  51  degrees,  48  degrees  being 
about  the  average  gravity  of  the  oil  obtained  from  the  third  sand, 
which  is  the  greatest  producer.  The  Venango  district  up  to  Janu- 
ary, 1885,  have  produced  about  55,000,000*  barrels,  an  average  of 
about  846,000  barrels  per  square  mile. 

5.  The  Butler  district  has  been  made  to  include  the  oil-pools  in 
Butler  and  Clarion  Counties  and  south-eastern  Venango  County. 
The  total  area  of  the  oil-pools  is  84  square  miles,  of  which  at  least 
76  square  miles  are  embraced  in  the  Clarion,  Butler  and  Armstrong 
field,  and  the  Butler  cross-belt,  The  oil  in  this  district  comes  from 
the  same  group  of  oil-sands  as  in  the  Venango  district.  Certain 
splits  occur  in  the  sands,  however,  which  have  not  been  discovered 
in  the  Venango  district.  The  character  of  the  sands  and  the  oils 
which  they  produce  vary  much  the  same  as  in  the  Venango  dis- 

*  The  Venango  district,  up  to  June,  1882,  produced  an  aggregate  of  53,o69,0()0 
barrels.  Since  that  date  the  reported  production  of  this  district  has  been  included  in 
that  of  the  Butler  and  Beaver  districts,  so  that  the  estimated  aggregate  product  of 
the  Venango,  the  Butler,  and  the  Beaver  districts  respectively,  to  1835,  is  only 
approximate,  although  the  total  product  of  the  three  districts,  composing  what  is  now 
known  as  the  Lower  Field,  has  been  obtained  from  actual  reports.  All  the  figures 
given  in  this  paper  have  been  based  upon  the  statistics  which  have  been  published 
monthly  in  Sto well's  Petroleum  Reporter,  with  one  exception  ;  the  aggregate  produc- 
tion to  1885  of  the  Beaver  district,  which  has  been  compiled  from  various  sources, 
is  greater  than  that  given  either  in  the  Petroleum  Reporter  or  on  the  accompany- 
ing chart,  showing  the  annual  production  of  the  individual  districts.  Mr.  Carll 
has  prepared  a  ''Statistical  Chart  of  the  Oil  Production  in  Pennsylvania  and  New 
York  from  1859  to  1882,"  which  is  published  in  the  "Survey  Report  on  Warren 
( Jounty."  The  statistics  contained  on  Mr.  Carll's  chart  have  been  collected  by  him 
from  various  sources;  I  believe  them  to  be  more  accurate  in  detail  than  any 
which  have  ever  been  published,  they  differ  but  little  in  their  general  conclusions 
from  those  reported  by  Mr.  S.  II.  Stowell,  which  latter  have  been  much  more  con- 
venient to  use  in  this  connection. 


THE  OIL-KEGIONS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  NEW  YORK.  7 


trict,  the  individual  oil  or  sand  in  one  district  having  a  counterpart 
in  the  other  district.  The  Butler  district,  up  to  January,  1885,  pro- 
duced about  69,000,000  barrels,  an  average  of  about  821,000  barrels 
per  square  mile. 

6.  The  Beaver  district  includes  the  two  principal  oil-pools  known 
as  Slippery  Rock  and  Smith's  Ferry.  The  former  pool  and  that 
portion  of  the  latter  east  of  the  Pennsylvania  State  line  cover  an 
area  of  about  16  square  miles;  the  area  of  the  Slippery  Rock  pool 
being  about  one-fourth  that  of  the  Pennsylvania  portion  of  the 
Smith's  Ferry  pool.  In  both  of  these  pools  heavy  oil  is  obtained 
from  the  representative  of  the  Pottsville  conglomerate,  No.  XII. 
and  amber  oil  from  the  Berea  grit  in  the  Sub-carboniferous  series. 
The  production  of  oil  in  this  district  up  to  January,  1885,  was  about 
1,000,000  barrels,  an  average  of  62,000  barrels  per  square  mile. 

Outside  of  the  limits  of  these  districts  a  small  amount  of  oil  has 
been  found  in  isolated  pools  to  the  south  and  southeast  of  the 
Beaver  and  Butler  districts  ;  at  Mt.  Nebo,  in  the  vicinity  of  Pitts- 
burgh ;  in  the  vicinity  of  Pleasant  Unity,  Westmoreland  County  ; 
near  the  mouth  of  Dunlap  Creek  in  Fayette  County;  along  White- 
ley  Creek,  west  of  Mapletown,  and  along  Dunkard  Creek  north  of 
Fairview,  both  in  Green  County ;  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Washington, 
in  Washington  County. 

That  the  general  boundaries  of  the  oil-regions  of  Pennsylvania 
are  now  well  established,  there  is  but  little  doubt  ;  and  that  all  the 
sands  in  which  oil  will  ever  be  found  in  paying  quantities  are  known 
and  have  been  drilled  through  at  different  localities  in  the  oil-regions 
seems  quite  certain,  so  that  we  can  have  no  reasonable  expectation 
that  any  new  and  extensive  field  will  be  found  which  could  compare 
in  area  or  in  the  amount  of  oil  to  be  obtained  from  it  with  the  But- 
ler, Clarion,  and  Armstrong  pool,  the  Oil  City  and  Pleasantville 
pool,  the  great  Bradford  pool,  or  the  Allegany  pool.  Prof.  Lesley, 
in  speaking  of  this  subject  in  January,  1883,  says:  "It  is  certain 
that  petroleum  is  not  now  being  produced  in  Devonian  rocks  by 
distillation  or  otherwise.  What  has  been  stored  up  can  be  got  out. 
When  the  reservoirs  are  exhausted,  there  will  bean  end  of  it.  The 
discovery  of  a  few  more  pools  of  two  or  three  million  barrels  each 
can  make  little  difference  in  the  general  result."  Mr.  Carl],  in 
June  of  the  same  year,  writes:  "  There  are  not  at  present  any  rea- 
sonable ground  for  anticipating  the  discovery  of  new  fields  which 
will  add  enough  to  the  declining  products  of  the  old,  to  enable  the 
output  to  keep  pace  with  the  shipments  or  consumption."   These  re- 


8        THE  OIL-BEG  IONS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA   AND  NEW  YORK. 


suits,  foreshadowed  by  Prof.  Lesley  and  Mr.  Carll,  were  not  gener- 
ally appreciated  until  the  latter  part  of  1883. 

The  irregular  but,  in  the  long  run,  steady  decline  in  the  daily  pro- 
duction of  petroleum  from  July,  1882,  when  the  maximum  average 
daily  production  for  any  one  month  was  attained  (105,10-5  barrels)  is 
now  generally  realized.  The  production  for  any  one  month,  or  any 
one  year  may  be  increased  very  materially,  over  what  it  is  at  present, 
by  renewed  activity  in  drilling  wells  within  the  general  confines  of 
the  oil  region,  or  by  working  over  old  territory  under  the  stimula- 
tion of  a  hungry  market  and  high  prices;  but  such  an  increase  in 
production  can  only  be  of  limited  duration,  since  there  is  nothing  to 
hope  for  during  a  decade  of  years  but  a  progressive  decline.  In  1884, 
the  total  production  of  the  region  was  22,732,209  barrels,  which* 
was  nearly  one  million  barrels  less  than  the  shipments;  during  the 
first  eight  months  of  the  present  year  the  production  has  fallen 
2,022,355  barrels  within  the  shipments.  At  the  end  of  August, 
1884,  the  maximum  of  stocks  ever  held  in  the  oil  regions  was  at- 
tained (39,084,561  barrels);  two  wreeks  ago  (September  1,.  1885), 
the  stocks  had  declined  to  35,343,771  barrels. 

It  is  estimated  that  in  July,  1883,  there  were  in  the  region, 
17,100  producing  wells,  the  average  daily  product  of  which  was  3.8 
barrels.  In  July,  1884,  there  were  21,844  producing  wells,  and  the 
average  daily  product  was  3  barrels;  and  in  July  of  this  year  it  is 
estimated  that  there  were  22,524  producing  wells,  the  average  daily 
product  being  2.5  barrels. 

A  defined  territory,  a  product  inadequate  to  meet  the  demand  of 
the  market  for  the  past  eighteen  months,  a  growing  market  and 
rapidly  diminishing  stocks ;  an  increasing  number  of  drilling  and 
producing  wells,  and  a  rapidly  falling  daily  average  product  per  well, 
are  all  significant  signs  of  a  certain  decline  in  a  great  industry  ;  and 
yet  the  average  price  of  crude  oil  per  barrel  for  the  month  of  July, 
1885  (92 J  cents)  was  13 \  cents  less  than  the  average  price  for  the 
entire  year  of  1883,  and  only  9  cents  more  than  the  average  price 
for  1884.  In  the  month  of  August,  1885,  the  average  price  per 
barrel  had  risen  to  §1.00}.  Although  this  is  a  great  advance  over 
the  price  for  the  preceding  months  of  the  year  (January,  $0.70 J, 
February,  §0.72|,  March,  $0.80 J,  April,  #0.78 J,  May,  0.79,  June, 


*  The  total  production  for  1864,  as  stated  by  the  Petroleum  Reporter,  was  24,772,209 
barrels  ;  the  total  production  given  above,  like  all  the  totals  made  use  of  in  this  paper, 
was  computed  from  the  individual  monthly  reports,  and  are  believed  to  be  correct. 


THE  OIL- REGIONS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  NEW  YORE. 


9 


$0.82),  yet  it  is  not  as  great  as  might  reasonably  be  expected  in  view 
of  the  conditions  of  the  petroleum  industry  referred  to. 

At  the  Washington  meeting  of  the  Institute,  held  in  February,  1882, 
the  late  Henry  E.  Wrigley  read  a  paper  on  the  amount  of  oil  remain- 
ing in  Pennsylvania  and  Xew  York  (Transactions  X.,  354),  in  which 
he  gave  the  area  of  the  oil-territory,  the  amount  of  oil  produced  per 
square  mile,  and  estimates  of  the  amount  of  territory  yet  to  be 
drilled  over,  and  of  the  quantity  of  oil  which  could  be  expected.  I  do 
not  wish  to  make  special  criticism  of  Mr.  Wrigley's  statements  or 
conclusions,  but  merely  to  say  that  facts  did  not  sustain  his  statements, 
and  I  never  accepted  his  conclusions.  The  mystery  with  which  the 
operations  in  the  oil-regions  have  been  conducted  during  the  last  ten 
years,  makes  it  extremely  difficult  to  gather  authentic  particulars 
from  the  drillers  or  producers;  and  if  it  were  not  for  the  valuable 
services  which  Mr.  Carll  has  rendered,  as  far  as  the  records  of  oil 
wells  and  the  geology  of  the  region  is  concerned,  and  that  which 
has  been  rendered  by  Mr.  Stowell  in  the  collection  and  publication 
of  statistics,  it  would  be  impossible,  even  now,  to  arrive  at  any  con- 
clusions bearing  on  the  questions  to  which  I  have  presumed  to  make 
brief  reference  in  this  paper. 

The  geologists  of  the  Pennsylvania  Survey,  and  a  few  of  the  oil- 
operators  who  have  given  the  subject  a  careful  consideration,  are 
united  in  believing  that  the  general  confines  of  the  territory  are 
defined,  and  it  is  admitted  that  it  is  in  vain  to  drill  wells,  as  has 
been  done  during  the  past  year  in  Lycoming  and  Chester  counties, 
where  none  of  the  conditions  under  which  oil  has  been  obtained  in 
Pennsylvania  are  to  be  found.  The  fact  must  not  be  lost  sight  of, 
however,  that  some  of  the  individual  oil-sands  have  been  explored 
within  limited  areas  only  of  the  oil-region  proper.  For  instance, 
the  Bradford  sand,  which  has  been  found  so  prolific  in  the  Alleghany 
and  Bradford  districts  over  an  extent  of  territory  42  miles  in  length, 
and  in  places  15  miles  in  breadth,  owing  to  its  great  depth  below  the 
surface,  and  the  procurement  of  oil  at  higher  horizons,  has  not  been 
thoroughly  explored  in  districts  to  the  southwest,  although  this  is 
the  producing  sand  in  the  Cooper  pool,  and  in  several  instances  wells 
have  pierced  its  horizon. 

In  February,  1878,  in  a  paper  which  I  read  before  the  Engineers' 
Club  of  Philadelphia,  on  the  oil-sands  of  Pennsylvania,  I  referred 
to  the  discovery  of  the  Smethport  oil-sand  in  McKean  county,  about 
360  feet  below  the  bottom  of  the  Bradford  oil-sand.  W  hat  the  pos- 
sibilities of  obtaining  oil  at  this  horizon  anywhere  in  the  oil-region 


10     THE  OIL-REGIONS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  NEW  YORK. 


are,  it  is  impossible  at  present  to  state.  The  horizon  of  this  sand 
has  been  pierced  by  several  wells,  and  a  small  show  of  oil  has  been 
found  ;  but  additional  wells  drilled  for  exploring  this  sand  may 
prove  complete  failures.  It  is  a  noted  fact  that  no  two  oil-sands, 
one  immediately  above  the  other,  have  been  great  producers  over 
the  same  extended  area.  I  have  called  attention  to  these  facts  as 
those  which  may  influence  the  extent  of  the  production  of  oil  in 
Pennsylvania  and  New  York  in  the  future. 

In  1882  Mi*.  Wrigley  stated  that  the  total  production  to  the  com- 
mencement of  that  year  had  been  154,000,000  barrels,  and  that  but 
96,000,000  barrels  of  oil  remained  to  be  got.  Up  to  the  commence- 
ment of  the  present  year  the  total  product  of  the  oil-regions  was 
261 ,000,000  barrels,  as  shown  by  the  accompanying  chart.  That 
the  product  has  passed  its  meridian,  there  is  no  question,  but 
what  the  total  aggregate  for  the  future  will  be,  it  would  be  folly  to 
estimate.  That  the  product  per  well  will  be  less,  and  the  cost  of 
producing  one  barrel  much  more  than  in  the  past,  experience  would 
seem  to  prove.  These,  with  other  collateral  facts  connected  with 
the  production,  manufacture,  and  consumption  of  the  product  will 
make  the  exhaustion  of  the  field  a  gradual  one  ;  and  it  is  probable 
that  long  before  every  barrel  of  oil  shall  have  been  taken  out  of  the 
oil -sands,  the  cost  of  production  per  barrel  will  be  so  great,  that 
the  oil-men's  occupation  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  will  be 
gone.  It  is  hardly  probable  that  the  Japanese  practice  of  excavat- 
ing a  vertical  shaft  600  feet  in  depth  to  obtain  a  few  gallons  of  oil 
a  day  will  ever  prove  a  profitable  enterprise  in  America. 


